Luxembourg's film industry is making waves at the 81st Venice Film Festival, with six co-productions, including a high-profile documentary and a series of innovative virtual reality films, capturing international attention.

The 81st edition of the dazzling Venice Film Festival is currently in full swing and a number of Luxembourgish co-productions have managed to get a spot in the limelight. Running from 28 August until 7 September as part of the Venice Biennale, Luxembourg will be represented at the Mostra with six co-productions.

As the festival continues to unfold against the enchanting backdrop of Venice, Film Fund Luxembourg is on the ground with a strong delegation, Director Guy Daleiden explains in conversation with RTL: "The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. It remains one of the three most important, alongside Cannes and Berlin. Being selected for the Festival already provides an opportunity to reach a level of attention you wouldn't get otherwise, and even more so if you are in competition.

"People will read about the film, the press will write about it, and it will be shown, usually to sold-out audiences, because people will want to see why the film is in competition. This gives you a visibility that you can’t achieve anywhere else."

This year, one Luxembourgish production is in competition, a documentary called Youth (Homecoming) by Chinese director Wang Bing, co-produced with the Luxembourg-based company Les Films Fauves. The five other Luxembourgish co-productions are virtual reality films, which will be featured in the 'Venice Immersive' division of the festival.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) films have increasingly become a strength of Luxembourg's film production scene, according to Minister for Culture Eric Thill: "Internationally we are among the top countries to have made significant investments in recent years, allowing us to build expertise and now we are finally seeing the fruits of our labour. We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved here and we want to continue building on this in the coming years.

"It is also important to me that we can use VR and AR in other sectors in the future as well. I'm thinking of tourism and education, for example, and gaming. We can cover the entire digital spectrum, which is also crucial for culture. There's a tonne of potential here, and I am committed to advocate for this in the foreseeable future."

At this year’s Venice Film Festival, audiences can explore Luxembourgish productions under the banner 'The Centre of Attraction', showcased alongside Belgian films. This initiative is part of the 'Venice Production Bridge', a platform designed to foster networking, financing, and co-production opportunities in the film industry.

Five Luxembourgish virtual film co-productions will be competing in the Venice Immersive division:

  1. Ceci est mon coeur by Nicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies, produced mainly in Luxembourg by a_BAHN, which includes France.
  2. Oto's Planet by Gwenael François, a majority Luxembourg production by Skill Lab involving Quebec and France.
  3. Mamie Lou by Isabelle Andréani, also a co-production between Skill Lab and France.
  4. Ito Meikyu by Boris Labbé, a co-production between Les Films Fauves and France.
  5. Champ de bataille by François Vautier, a co-production between Digital Voodooh, France and Belgium.